Nango Running club

南湖ランニングクラブでの格闘技セミナー！小学生と中学生で３～４０人がいました。最初に一時間のドリルをやりました、そのときは参加させてもらいました。子供たちの走り振りを見て僕も頑張らなきゃと思いました、早かったですよみんな！自分は格闘かなのでそんなに走るのは早くなくってもいいですけど、負けず嫌いのでやっぱり誰かと運動すれば自然と頑張るんです。いろんな走り方を勉強させてもらいましたので本当に楽しかったです。その後は自分の一時間の格闘技タイムに入りました。押忍と気合を教えたらすぐに皆さんはできるようになりました。外ははまだ雪は積もっているし、降っているし。。。体育館の中は寒かったけど、みんあの力で温かく感じました。その皆様からトマトジュースをプレゼントされました、南湖といえばトマトです。トマトを何でも入れるんです、最後のトマトおにぎりは美味しかったです？いやいやそんなの無かった。５月にあえず（？スペルが分からない）で映画の撮影が入りますので僕もワンカットぐらい出てくれと頼まれましたのでもう一回行きます。５月になればもう少し温かいかも、緑いっぱいで多分すごいいいところです！楽しみです。


So on Saturday I went up to Nango in Fukushima, and did a Martial Arts Seminar at the local Nango Running Club. There were about 40 kids in different age groups, but we still managed to have some fun. It was the first time for almost everyone to try out some Martial Arts, so I am sure that they all enjoyed it. THe first hour they spent warming up and then going over a whole bunch of running drills, to run faster and more correct etc. I joined in and had a lot of fun trying to keep up with the kids, some of those kids were really fast and the way they could run was beautiful. It made me really think about my running stride, I mean I get up 5 or 6 days a week and run, but I have never really been taught how to run correctly. So it was really interesting to get to work on my stride, I think I am going to continue to practice some of the things we did at the seminar. The last hour I taught them all how to kick, punch, block and then roll. A bit of everything and now I am sure that they are all stronger than they were before they started.

Wow what a weekend !

金曜日のスタートから日曜日の深夜まで。。。かなり忙しい週末でした！金曜日は写真の道理ジムの近くの児童館でＳｈｏｊｉ　Ａｋｉｒａさんと格闘技のセミナーをやりました、近所の若い学生たちと強さって何だ？というテーマで人どうり格闘技を教えました。学生たちは元気いっぱいで運動能力ばつぐ！すぐに２時間のセミナーは終わってしまった、物足りないのもたくさんいました。まーその子達はジムに来てもらいたいです、一緒に強くなった行こうなー！それから、夜はお世話になっている前田先生のボーリング大会。僕は珍しく１００オーバーのクラブに入りました。。。１０６点をとって何と次回の決勝戦に残りました！土曜日の朝に車で今度福島の南湖に行きました、南湖ランニングクラブで子供たちと格闘技のセミナーを開きました。それはまで本当に楽しかったです、明日はそれの写真をアップします。その夜に観劇会が終わって東京にもどって、深夜２時に回りましたが無事に家に帰れた。そして、日曜日の７時起きで名古屋に今度行くことになっていて。丸山君はＨＥＡＴ６の－７０キロトーナメントにエントリー。相手はあの丈太郎選手だったので今まで戦った中で一番強い相手でしたが、自分のローキックをきれいにヒットして。これはとったと思ったら何か本当のスリップしてしまって最後の１０秒でダウンとられて。。。判定負けでした。お互いにすねが切れてしまったけど最後まで試合は続けました。本当に成長した丸山君を見て嬉しくなりました。そして、志村館長に挨拶してみんなで車に乗って東京に帰りました。家に着いたのは深夜１時半、もうしばらく車になりたくないです！

It all started on Friday, I had a seminar with Akira Shoji,at the local youth club. The kids are so full of energi that they don't know how to control them, so we were asked to come and do a seminar about what it is to be really strong. We had 2 hours witht the kids and although we had them do everything from stand up fighting to wrestling on the ground. They still wanted to learn more when we where finished, I hope some of them end up in our gym! Then I went bowling with Maeda-Sensei, and her gang! This is a thing she arranges once every 2 or 3 months and last Friday I was able to score more than 100 so I joined the over 100 club and got qualified for the final next month! Then we had to get up early Saturday morning and drive up to Fukushima, 5 or 6 hours on the road...Nango Running Club had invited me to come and do a seminar, to work with the kids. I had some great fun runninng with all the kids and learning new drills for how to run faster. Then we joined in the after party and although I would have liked to stay, we needed to drive back to Tokyo. Arriving at past 2 in the morning after about 10 or 11 hours of driving, I was getting pretty tired. But that was not going to hold me back from getting up at 7am. and then driving down to Nagoya, another 5.5 hour drive. Maruyama was set to fight at HEAT6 against the champion Jotaro! He took the fight to him and totally dominated him until the last 10 sec. when he got a slip kind of punch! No Damage at all, it really was a slip! But they counted on him and we felt a bit of the warmth of fighting the local champion, so he ended up loosing on the decision! But it was so cool to see him being able to stick it to the champ like that. I really want to see him in action again soon.

Showreel !

林さん、僕の友達は作ってくれたショーリールです、これで映画界に飛び込んでガンガンアクターとしての活動が出来るように。。。願っています！よかったらこの未完成版を見てください。僕は見てかなり感動しました、林さんいつもありがとうございます。しかし、林さん！あの可愛い音楽はちょっと？デンマークに帰っている間に作ったので寂しかったとはいうもの。。。ヒヒヒ

http://www.ae-factory.com/nicholas/

Check out this beta version of my show reel, a friend of mine Hayashi-san made it for me. It has been real hard to get all the footage edited out so that he could put this together. But he never gave up and although it is more of a life piece than an actual show reel I still love it. I am not sure about the music though...he said that because I was in Denmark when he finished it, he felt a bit lonely and this was the song that came to him...LOL

Waking up early

Since I have gotten back from Denmark, I have been waking up pretty early. On an average I have been getting up at 5:00 am and being real hungry! Been back in training, so I should be tired enough to sleep through the night. But I just still can't seem to shake off the waking up at 5! Today I got up and had some breakfast and wasn't sure if I should go back to bed, but then I started watching a movie on the cable. And here I am a couple of hours later gonna have to get ready for the morning run! The thing is I was asked to fight on the April show, but my opponent turned me down and then I couldn't get on the show! I was getting real serious too, my training was going great. I was really intent on doing it, but I guess it happens a lot. I always get called in the last second and then against obscure opponents? But that is OK, it is the reason I always have to train so that I am always ready. It just makes it so much more easy, when you have a couple of months to prepare for something. The dedication is so more intense, and the end result is also so much better. Damn shame about this fight. I am still gonna train for it, I mean you never know what might happen from now until then...I guess that gives me some time to enjoy the Hanami season.

今日も時差でなんか早く起きちゃった。。。デンマークから帰ってきてから毎朝５時に起きて腹が減っている、それでいつも何かを食べてまたベッドに入って寝ていたけど。今日は朝から面白い映画はやっていたのでそれを見ていたら、もうこんな時間になってしまった。あれ？コウイチ君と走る時間じゃないか？もう行かなきゃ、それはそれでいいですけどひょっとしたら４月に試合が出来るかもの話はこの二週間前からありましたので僕は毎日３回練習していました。しかし、昨日でその話は飛んでしまった。相手は断ったと説明されただけです。まーやるならやるでいいけどそのモードに一回させてからこだわるのは本当に腹立つ！今まで何回もそれがあったので本当にいやです。それはいろいろがあるかも分からないけど、毎回僕はすべてをかけているのでその気持ちを分かってもらいたいです。気持ちを切り替えて次に向かうしかないです、コウイチだって待っているし早く行かない間に合わない。何よりもこれで小事さんと花見が出来るのでいいです！

Last Samurai and Vulcano's

そうです、これはあの有名なＴｏｍ　Ｃｒｕｉｓｅ　映画のラスト・サムライを元にしている日本のラストサムライのたてだそうです。大きいですけど写真はあまりよくないです。。。それと３年前に噴火した鹿児島の港の前にある火山です、未だにけむりが出ていますのでまたいつ噴火するのは分からないけどちょっと考えちゃうね。前回は町中３～４ｃｍの誇りがたまったので本当に大変でした。最後の写真は説明しなくってもいいかなーさくらはどんどんきれいになってきます、そしてあるあらしが来て全部無くなったら本当の春ですね。一週間もてば嬉しいです！
　So check out the statue of the actual caracter that the movie " The LAst Samurai" was made over! It is really big, and it is standing there in the city of Kagoshima. Then across from the harbor there is a live ulcano just kind of sitting there in the horizon, smoking! 3 years ago it blew up and left the whole city in a blanket of ash deep as 3 or 4 cm...Man people must have been whishing for rain during that time? then my Sakura tree is really coming along well, soon it will be in full blossom and then we are gonna have a BBQ to celebrate the coming of spring. It is tradition in Japan to go out and do the annual Hanami/ freely translated to flower watching. Actually it is mainly just an excuse to get hammered!!! But I guess that if you are gonna get hammered then doing it under a beautiful tree is as good a place as any!

Kagoshima, and the Cherry Blossom

Yep, I was just down in Kagoshima yesterday, and in those 2 days the Sakura has started to bloom. Here are 2 shots of the same bud just one day apart.

昨日は何と鹿児島まで行きました、ちょっとしたイベントでピーターと顔を出していました。それでその間にあっという間さくらがさいた。見てください、きれいになりました！

Server down ?

I think that my server was down again? I couldn't check my mails or see this website yesterday, so I guess that the server was down...sorry about the inconvenience. Anyway, I am going to continue my Hanami/Cherry blossom count down.

サーバーダウンかな～？昨日はメールもこのウエブサイトも見れなかったですので、多分サーバーダウンだったんじゃないな？いつも迷惑かけて申し訳ないです、それにしても花見までのカウントダウンは続きます。ちなみに花見って英語で言うとCherry Blossom何ですが、チェリーブロッサムって本当は関係ないです、それは誰かが昔桜とさくらんぼとかんちがえしてそういう風に訳されていたと思うけど。。。僕も最初の１０年間は何でさくらんぼは出てこないか不思議でしょうがなかったです？

Countdown on the Sakura, 花見カウントダウン

そうですよ、もうこんな時期になりました、この２日間はずーっと雨ですけど晴れれば絶対に桜はさいてくれると思います。家の窓から毎日撮影しますので、どんなにきれいになるかは楽しみにしていてください。


It is is the annual Sakura blossom time and right in front of my window, there is a huge Sakura tree. I am going to take a shot everyday until they are fully sprung out, and then you are going to see why the Sakura trees are so loved in Japan.

幼稚園卒業！Last day in Kindergarden!

昨日は二番目の娘の幼稚園の卒業式がありました、子供はすぐに大きくなるのですが自分もそれなり年をとっているんだろう。来月から小学校に上がるので子供としていられるのは後すこしです。上の子は学校に上がったときを思い出すとあっという間に小さい社会人になったのでちょっと寂しかったです。それと今まで宿題を一人分を見ていたのにこれから二人分を見なきゃいけない。。。これは結構大変です！


Yesterday it was my second daughter's final day in the kinder garden. In Japan it is a big thing to graduate from kinder garden, and we held a party with all the parents and teachers. I guess it is a big thing for the kids, because most of them have been together for the last 3 years, but now that they are starting school the group is being split up in 9 different places. But some of the other kids are also going to join the same class as my daughter. I don't think I can remember any of the kids I went to kinder garden with, because we moved around a bit when I was a kid. Anyway, they all grow up so fast and before you know it we will all be old and gray, hopefully sitting on a porch somewhere looking at the setting sun with a nice cold beer in my hand. "Hey! Grandpa? can you come help me with my bicycle...the chain fell off" I might be getting ahead of myself here, but I guess it is all right to have an idea of where you want to end up.

高速道路！Ｎｅｗ Ｈｉｇｈｗａｙ！

昨日は知り合いの息子が卒業パーティーに呼ばれて、宇都宮までいきました。そして、帰りに近くに住んでいるカメラマンがいましたので車で送ってもらいました。それは池袋から初台まで新しく出来た高速に乗りたいとだいぶ前から思っていたのですが、その埼玉のほうから帰ることがあまり無いので乗るチャンスはなかった。
それで昨日宇都宮から車で帰ってたら、行けるんじゃないか？そして、今まで明治道の上からでしか見ていない工事現場はやっと乗れました。本当にきれいだった、それと普通に行ってたよりも１０ｋｍ短縮したのですぐに帰れた。

They, I don't even know who they are, but they have been working on this section of the Highway for years now, and it has meant that the two most travelled streets in Tokyo have both been under construction for years. It has been a hassle to even want to go down those roads, but finally we are going to see the end of all those cut offs and repaired street section after section. Because a part of the new highway/underway has finally been completed, here are a couple of shots to show you what it looks like at around midnight. It has made my way home on the Highway shorter by at least 10 km's, so next time I find myself in Saitama and I want to get back fast this is the way I will take.

久しぶりの米！

日本に帰ってきたというよりも、家に帰ってきた。７年ぶりにデンマークに帰ったというよりも、行ったって感じでした。友達は久しぶりに会えて嬉しかったけど昔みたいにたくさんいるって訳じゃないので、今回は家族にデンマークを見せたかったです。いろんなところに行けたけどやっぱり時期はずれでした！一番行きたかったレゴランドやＴｉｖｏｌｉ公園は全部夏限定です。たくさんの写真をＢｌｏｇにのせたのですが、しばらく日本語がうてるパソコンは無かったので日本語の日記は書けなかったです。何か気になったことがあれば聞いてください、今日は時差ぼけで朝早く起きて暇だったのでランニングしました。でもそれはそれで気持ちいいです、昔ニューヨークに行った時もそういうことがありました。ニューヨークの朝４時ってのはちょっと怖いです。。。お母さん、お兄さんそれと兄貴の息子はみんな元気だったのでそれは何よりもよかったです、二週間はあっという間に終わってしまった。まだまだ見たいものはたくさんありました、しかし今度は夏じゃないと行かないかも？夏のデンマークって本当に別の世界です、緑がいっぱいで本当に気持ちいところです。ＢＢＱをやれば夜の２３：００まで明るいです、寒くないし本当にいいです。今回は毎日朝起きてパン屋に行っていろんなパンを買って食べました、かなり体重は上がったと思いますけど７年ぶりにデンマークのパン屋に行くなら飽きるまで食べたかったです。さすがに昨日空港から買い物に行って一番先に飼ったものは寿司でした！美味しい米が食べたくなった自分はやっぱり変わっていました、それは１７年に日本にいれば米のほうが美味しく感じる。。。

Going back today,

We all just got up and now that we gave back the rental car, we are just killing time before we head out for the airport. It was a a good two weeks back home, but now reality waits for me back in Tokyo. So I will be back in training soon enough, there are lots of things I need to do once I get back. And although it has been great being back hanging with the family and my friends, I need to get back and get ready for the next fight. I don´t know yet when that will be but I hope there is something in there for me soon enough...This is me in front of the famous Louisiana, and a shot of the famous H.C. Andersen, the author of the little mermaid, the girl with the match sticks and many other great stories. I took the picture in front of the royal Danish Theater. So I guess that next time you hear from me,I will be back in Japan.

Nyhavn and great beer !

Yes, it was party time last night, I got together with all my friends...that is counting all three of them! and we ate great food and had some real nice times enjoying the local beer. This place is called Nyhavn, which means the new harbor, it is a really cool part of Copenhagen. Now it is mostly tourists that venture down there for the sights and the nice foods to be had. But being a bit of a tourist myself, I had no problems hanging out there. You get to sit outside with a blanket and under the heater, but it is still cool to sit there and watch the sun go down. When I was young and needed to save some money to go to Japan, I used to work down in one of the restaurants making serving and selling the infamous sandwich of the shop. Today that place has changed owners and now it is run by some Italians, but it was still fun to come back and remember the good times I had there...

The Danish country side

Hill billies and buffalo´s, its more or less the same in Denmark. We are famous for our special breeds of both pigs and cows. Back in the 80´s some dude designed a better pig with an extra rib! Hence more bacon...I think he just got lucky with some cross breeding but the result is a bigger more bacon´d pig. This is a shot of a something??? I have never seen one of these before, but they were really cute. Ate all the carrots I gave them and even let me pat its head without trying to spear me alive...
this is a shot of an ancient house on the country side, its built in the old style and has probably been standing there like that for several centruries, and if I am not wrong it will still be standing there for a couple of hundred years...

The Royal Church in Roskilde

This is the Royal Church in Roskilde, it is where all the Kings and Queens are burried when dead. It is located about 30km out of Copenhagen, and the surrounding city is now a lot bigger than before, but it still keeps it´s special atmoshere. The church is located at the top of a hill that looks out over the bay in the area, and this bay was once a well travelled bay for the vikings. They would set off on their crusade against the Irish and British here. Even today there are wrecks of Pirate ships that have been sunk out in the bay. There is one place that have excavated the remains and pieced them together to create exactly the ships they sailed back in the day. Truth has it that although they say Columbus discovered the america´s, Vikings often ventured out along the edge of the glaziers and made their way all the way over to what we today know as Canada and America! Hence we once ruled the world...I uess in some sort of way at least. More trivia for you, while the romas had built great cities with flowing water systems and toilets in the houses that were cleansed through constructed waterways, the Vikings in the north were still getting high on magic mushrooms and going on raping and killing forages across the scandinavias!

Diller and Arnaldo !

These are two of my oldest friends in Denmark. I have gone to school with both of them, and even though we dont have that close contact we are still friends. Here we were standing on a playground in Copenhagen, we ended up hanging out there for about 3 hours, and then we went back to my Mom´s and had wine and fine dining! My wife made us a japanese dish called Tonkatsu, deep fried pork chops! It was a big success and the kids really loved it. I think they have had enough of the danish pastries...and looking at them I can understand why...

so I wonder what you see ?

I stumbled upon this painting at my Mom´s...and for years all I saw was thre naked girls, but there is more to this painting than meets the eye. They say that some people don´t even see the girls. What do you see ? I do realize that the effect of the painting is somewhat distorted by the bad quality of the shot on my phone, but you might still get the point. Yesterday we went shopping and I found a shop who´s logo was my smiley! You see when I sign a autograph in Japan, I always write a smiley :)las that is because in japanese, the smiley is called a Niko-chan here chan is just a cute title you give girls or very dear friends. So I am often called Niko-chan, but by combining that with a l a s I am able to write my name, Niko-las.

Little Mermaid !

I think she speaks for herself...

Morning Baker

Fight Arena is one of the local promotions, and last night it was on. I went there with my brother Tony because one of his students was going to fight. He was just 16 and it was going to be his first fight with the full rules. He won the fight but the swedish fighter was very determined, and I thought it was a very tight fight. Then I got to hook up with the promoter and you never know? maybe one day he would like to use Ryo or Koichi ? Then we decided to go out and hit the town, but I couldn`t locate any of my friend and my brothers girlfriend suddenly got sick. So he ended up having to go home, and that meant that I too called it the night. So I made my way to bed by 22:00 hours and fell asleep with an old comic book in my hands. But waking up this morning was nice, jumped into the shower and then straight down to the local bakery. it was still 7:00 am but they were still open.Man it is so sweet,and plentyful but I know I wont be eating this kind of food for a while again. So I have decided to get my fill of it while I can, today I am hooking up with one of my best friends Arnaldo. I haven´t seen him in years, and now he has a 4 year old son! We are all growing so fast. Anyway, I was thinking of going and checking out some shopping here on a Sunday, but that is just not possible! It is actually against the law in Denmark to open your shops on Sundays!!! and on Saturdays they have what you call halfdays.
So everything closes at around 14:00, for us that live in Japan that is just something we can´t imagine...I mean when do people actually get their shopping done? I can´t figure it out, but it still seems to work very well over here. I am truly impressed with the danish way of living, and since it has been so long for me to be back, there are so many things about this place that I have forgotten. It is nice to come and get everything refreshed.>

Kickboxing seminar !

Today I spent most of the day running a kickboxing seminar, it was held in the gym where my brother teaches a couple of times a week. There was a great atmosphere and everyone really wanted to learn something. I really enjoyed it! And hope that we can all train again together. I also finally got to met the man behind the danish magazine Fighter, Tue, he had joined in the class and although his expertise is MMA he still tried hard. I showed them some of my moves and in the end they all wanted to see the axe kick, so we worked a bit on that in the end. It is a very new gym so there were just in the process of setting up shop but the location was awesome and so was the room space. The basement was huge with showers and everything, I would like to have a gym like that...

Water World Lalandia !

So we are finally getting out of this water world place called Lalandia. It´s a great place for the kids to hang out and have fun, but now we are about to drive back to Copenhagen. Tomorrow I am doing a kickboxing seminar in Tony´s( My older brother) Muay Thai gym. I hope that there will be a good turn up, it is going to be fun to train with some danish kickboxers. Anyway, I was going to show you a picture of me getting trampled by the feeding goats, but for some reason my phone couldn´t upload the pictures...I will try later.
I think I got the picture in there now...

Sudden Snow!

So we were on the Island Møn and we were at the site, like you could see on my previous blog entry. And then as we made our way down the cliff on the immense stairs, it was all shiny weather, but as we got to the bottom it suddenly started to snow and by the time we got up the cliff it was like being in a snow storm. Unreal place and unreal weather. It was quite exiting though, then we drove down to the bottom of Sealand to a harbor city called Rødby and this is the place where you can take the ferry to Germany and other exotic destinations. But we were here for a very different reason, Lalandia! It´s a place for families to come and spend a few days away from the cities and be able to just enjoy good times at the pool side or ice skate ring. Or some of the other many fun things you can do. Here is a picture of Tony and his son Sean, close to hut that we are staying in. It is really nice to share a family vacation like this, although we are all together all the time we still get to have our own time and it is working out really well. We cook and drink and watch TV, play games etc. great times with the family.

Møn´s Klint

This is me at Møn´s Klint. This picture does not do it justice, the whole place is kind of magical.Almost like a scene out of the Lord of the Rings, the actual cliff side was just amazing. And we were lucky or unlucky enough to catch some of the incredible weather. When we got there it was a brilliant day the sun was shining and there was a clear view of the ocean and the surrounding hills.But then as we made our way down to the bottom, the weather suddenly changed. The temperature dropped and it started at first kind of raining, then it turned into snow, and by the time we had made our way back up to the top it was hailing? I don´t know how to spell that, but tiny balls of ice were raining down from the sky, and we were all quite grateful for the protection the car gave us. This picture of a old chusrh is also a burial site for Vikings and has recorded history of over 4000 years...The actual church was built there almost 1000 years ago.
But it was still standing strong.

Morning view !

While we are here in Denmark, we decided to rent a car so that we can get around. But the thing is I dont know where everything is, I mean I know my old neigborhood, but that is not much of Denmark. Today we are going to make our way down to the south part of the Island Sealand, and visit a place called Lalandia. Its a indoor swimming pool with wtaer slide etc. it is gonna be great fun with all the kids running around like crazy. Anyway, I am feeling a bit like a tourist that knows how to speak the language, everybody in Denmark speaks english, so it is easy to communicate, even for the kids. Waking up to a real nice day like today was good, we have been going to baker everyday and on the way back we feed the swans and ducks down in that lake you can see here. This used to be the outer rim for copenhagen, and was easy to defend because the only way across was over one of the 5 connecting bridges between the inner city and the land. Copenhagen is a portal city and has since ancient times been a very important trade place. So it was imperative to be able to defend the royal crown and its palaces. We are also going to swing by a small Island called Møn, which is famous for its huge chalk wall. There are two such sites in Denmark,the other is at Stevns Klint, but the one in Møn should be seen. I am looking forward to it because I dont think I have actually been to the real big on Møn.

Den Danske Karateskole !

This is where I startet Karate back in the day, we were just driving around te neighborhood when we came across this place. It was Sunday so we didnt go in, but I think that we are going some time before I go back to Japan. And then this is a shot from the new play ground at my old school. It is always fun to go back to the places you grew up in, but the thing is everything looks so different from what you expect it to be...I guess that almost 20 years later it dont matter where you have been, things are bound to look different.

Thank you all for coming to SMOKERS!

I would like to thnak you all for coming to SMOKERS, it was our first time to the event and with the help from you all, the sponsors and of course AACC Abe-san, we were able to have an awesome event. I had a lot of fun, and really look forward to getting together for the next one.

I am in Denmark right now, it has been 7 years since my last visit so I can tell you that I am pretty exited about being back here. I finally got to bring my whole family home, so we are going to spend the next two weeks here eating good foods and enjoying the company of our niece. Sean was born on X-mas day a year and a bit ago, and now he is already walking. He is really cute, I will try and get a picture of him so you can see what the latest edition the Pettas Clan looks like.

I am sorry for the fans in JAPAN, because my Mothers computer does not type Kanji...